22 Caves to Explore in England

The Blue John Cavern is one of the four show caves in Castleton, Derbyshire, England. This popular showcave is home to 8 of the 14 known veins of a rare form of fluorspar known as Blue John Stone. Visitors can view old mining equipment and visit the Waterfall Cavern and Grand Crystallized Cavern on regular guided tours. The cavern takes its name from the semi-precious mineral Blue John, which is still mined in small amounts outside the tourist season and made locally into jewelry.

At Clearwell Caves you discover the hidden world the miners created, as they dug through impressive natural caverns to remove iron ore and ochre pigment. The caves are part of a Natural England designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and the notification includes parts of Clearwell along with Old Bow, Lambsquay and Old Ham mine complexes.

Creswell Crags is a spectacular magnesian limestone gorge with a honeycomb of caves that were occupied during the last Ice Age on the border between Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire. The caves provided shelter for nomadic humans between 55,000 and 10,000 years ago, and stone tools, worked bone items and the remains of animals found there give some evidence about the lives of our ancestors.

Gaping Gill is one of the most famous caves in the Dales and one of the largest underground chambers in Britain. It’s often said, without exaggeration, that this dramatic chamber is big enough to fit a cathedral. It is so big that there has been an attempt to fly a hot air balloon inside the cave. Gaping Gill still retains the records for the highest unbroken waterfall in England and the largest underground chamber naturally open to the surface.

Gough's Cave is located in Cheddar Gorge on the Mendip Hills, in Cheddar, Somerset, England. The cave is 115 m deep and is 3.405 km long, and contains a variety of large chambers and rock formations. It contains the Cheddar Yeo, the largest underground river system in Britain. Palaeolithic caves and rock shelters provide some of the earliest evidence of human activity in the period from about 400,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Ingleborough Cave is one of the best known in the UK with many visitors coming each year keen to see the historic attraction. Visitors to the cave will be greeted with one of the finest show caves in the UK with a number of notable features. It was located close to the village of Clapham in the scenic Yorkshire Dales. The tours of the Cave leave from the entrance at regular intervals with an expert guide to help interpret the many features of the Cave.

King Arthurs Cave is a limestone cave, which is one of only five English caves known to have been used in both the Early and Late Upper Palaeolithic periods. The cave is situated at the foot of a low cliff at the north-western end of Lord's Wood on the hill of Great Doward at Whitchurch near the River Wye. It consists of a broad entrance platform, a double interconnected entrance and two main chambers.

Malham Cove is a huge curving amphitheatre-shaped cliff formation of limestone rock.It was formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age more than 12,000 years ago. Today it is a well-known beauty spot within the Yorkshire Dales National Park Formed along the line of the Middle Craven Fault, it has been eroded backward from the line of the fault by the action of water and ice over millions of years. The limestone pavement at the top is a superb example of

Mother Shipton's Cave is at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, near the River Nidd. Nearby is a petrifying well, also known as a dropping well. The latter is the oldest tourist attraction to charge a fee in England and has been operating since 1630. The water of the well is so rich in sulphate and carbonate that artefacts may be put in the well to be "petrified" as a tourist attraction.

Peak Cavern is the only wholly natural cavern of the four and is the least commercialized. Peak Cavern is almost entirely natural; the only artificial part of the cave was blasted to bypass a low tunnel that was only accessible by lying down on a boat. One of the iconic attraction in this area and attracts a lot of peoples here.

This great carboniferous limestone cavern is one of the finest show caves in England and boasts many strange and wondrous formations and so more. There has been Evidence of prehistoric life from the Neolithic and early Bronze ages have been found. It will be a new experience visiting this place.

Redcliffe Caves are actually mines, as the entire system was carved by hand with the purpose of accessing the fine sand within the cliffs that was perfect for making glass. Today, the full extent of the caves is unknown. They stretch for at least an acre beneath Redcliffe, a district of Bristol named for its red sandstone cliffs.

The Surrey town of Reigate is well known for its 'caves' which riddle the town centre, although these are in fact largely old sand mines. The castle mound overlooking Reigate town centre is composed of soft sandstone and has been mined over several centuries. The castle has long gone but the mound and many of its excavations still remain. Known locally as the "Reigate Caves", tours include the Barons' Cave in the Castle Grounds and the East and West Caverns in Tunnel Road.

Royston Cave is a Man-made cave with enigmatic carvings, some say made by the Knights Templar themselves. It was discovered by accident in the middle of the 18th century and is full of carvings. its walls are covered in crude carvings dated to the mid-1300s of Christian saints, animals, and pagan earth goddess Sheela-na-gig. One of the unique attractions in this area and it attracts a lot of tourists.

The Speedwell caves are set at the foot of the Winnats Pass. It is one of 4 caves in the village of Castleton. Once a lead mine, the watery tunnels of Speedwell Cavern were originally blasted by miners over 200 years ago searching for treasures beneath the ground using primitive tools. A fascinating boat ride through the flooded workings of an 18thC lead mine. The boat trips are fully supervised by experienced guides and take you deep inside a limestone hill to the 'bottomless pit', a huge under

St Cuthbert’s Cave, nestled away in the remote countryside of Belford, oozes mystery due to its spiritual past.It is said that the ancient monks of Lindisfarne laid St Cuthbert’s body to rest here in AD875, the reputable saint who possessed the power of spiritual healing. The woodlands and cave are the property of the National Trust. The cave is formed of overhanging rock, sufficiently large to provide shelter for a small group.

An ancient natural cave formation deep underneath the Yorkshire Dales. The caves themselves began to form as the limestone was eroded by weak acid rain, created when carbon dioxide from the atmosphere mixed with the precipitation to form carbonic acid. It offer a range of facilities for a great family day out, including a gift shop and tea room as well as the caves themselves. There is also a twenty minute film presentation shown in its lecture theatre, informing visitors of the history and de

The Hellfire Caves are a network of man-made chalk and flint caverns that extend 0.25 miles underground. The tunnel and its warren of adjoining chambers and halls were dug a quarter of a mile into the earth, directly beneath a church. They were excavated between 1748 and 1752 for Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer, founder of the Dilettanti Society and co-founder of the Hellfire Club, whose meetings were held in the caves.

Thor's Cave is a natural cavern in Staffordshire, England. This natural cavern is located in the Manifold Valley of the White Peak in Staffordshire. It is classified as a Karst cave. Reached by an easy stepped path from the Manifold Way, the cave is a popular tourist spot, with views over the Manifold Valley. The second entrance is known as the "West Window", below which is a second cave, Thor's Fissure Cavern.

Treak Cliff Cavern in Castleton is famous throughout the world for its unique and large deposits of Blue John stone and The cave comprises two sections, the Old Series, discovered by lead miners in the 18th century, and the New Series, discovered during blasting in the 1920s. Mined for the rare Blue John ornamental mineral for over 300 years, the Visitor Attraction is a family run business, operated by the Harrison family, continuously since 1945.